The future of power is looking extraterrestrial, contested, and digitally hungry. NASA is plotting a nuclear reactor for the moon, states are fighting over who foots the bill for massive transmission projects, and Nvidia is finally addressing AI’s gluttonous grid habits. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s energy resilience, Europe’s summer blackouts, and see-through solar tech give us a glimpse of how fragile—and inventive—the energy world is becoming.

NASA’s First Lunar Reactor: A New Space Race Begins

Sean Duffy—the Trump-appointed Transportation Secretary moonlighting as NASA’s interim administrator—is set to announce an aggressive plan to deploy a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030.

The move marks the first major nuclear initiative under Duffy’s dual-hatted leadership and accelerates NASA’s long-debated lunar energy plans. Documents obtained by Politico highlight a geopolitical race against China and Russia:

• Strategic edge: The first nation to plant a reactor could establish lunar “keep-out zones,” locking rivals out of key sites.

• Timeline: NASA will solicit industry bids within 60 days, aiming for a launch within five years of the agency’s target return to the moon.

• Commercial stations: The plan also fast-tracks replacing the aging ISS with privately operated stations by 2030 to avoid ceding orbital dominance to Beijing.

NASA’s budget faces deep science cuts, but human spaceflight and nuclear energy are getting White House backing. The reactor won’t just power lunar bases—it’s a stake in the ground for resource control and future Mars missions.

Five States Revolt Against $22B MISO Transmission Portfolio

Utility commissions from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and North Dakota have filed a complaint with FERC to strip a $22 billion Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) transmission portfolio of its “multi-value project” (MVP) status.

• The dispute: MVP status spreads costs across MISO’s entire 15-state region. The five states argue it unfairly forces them to subsidize clean energy ambitions of Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois.

• The math: MISO claimed the project delivers $38.3B in benefits (avoided capacity costs, reliability, decarbonization). A consultant for the states puts it closer to $4–7B.

• Process concerns: Critics allege MISO’s planning lacks checks and balances, with stakeholder input dismissed and even the market monitor’s authority challenged.

If FERC agrees, it could derail a 3,631-mile 765-kV transmission backbone crucial for remote wind and solar delivery in the Midwest. The fight underscores growing state-versus-state battles over who pays for the green grid buildout.

Nvidia’s Power Spike Fix for AI Data Centers

AI training loads behave like steel mills on steroids—huge surges in power use during ramp-up, punishing grid capacity planning. Nvidia, the dominant chipmaker behind this boom, just announced a rack-scale power supply with built-in energy storage that:

• Smooths spikes: Reduces peak grid demand by up to 30%.

• Load management: Caps power draw during startup, uses onboard storage to flatten spikes in steady state, and gradually ramps down workloads.

• Efficiency: Lets data centers provision closer to average consumption, fitting more AI racks into existing power allocations.

Georgia Tech’s Santiago Grijalva calls it a “moderate big deal”—it’s a step forward but limited to Nvidia’s top-end systems and doesn’t solve the harder problem: getting enough transmission capacity to these mega-centers.

AI demand is rewriting grid planning. Nvidia’s solution helps, but as workloads evolve, so too will power patterns—and the grid isn’t ready for all of it.

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Conversation Starters

• Defense News: Taiwan’s Grid Could Collapse Under Chinese Blockade
  CSIS war games show Taiwan could lose up to 80% of its electricity during a Chinese blockade, crippling chip production vital to the global economy. Hardening grid infrastructure and securing LNG and coal imports are top priorities.

• Financial Times: Europe’s Heatwaves Flip Grid Demand
  For decades, Europe’s peak demand was winter heating. This summer’s brutal heatwaves have changed that—air conditioning spikes are now driving summer peaks that rival or exceed January highs. Nuclear plants and hydropower struggled as grids buckled.

• The Cool Down: Transparent Solar Tech Turns Windows into Power Plants
  Korean researchers developed a see-through solar cell that captures infrared light while letting visible light pass through—generating power from windows and phone screens at over 10% efficiency. Buildings could soon power themselves without dark panels.

Good Bet, Bad Bet

Good Bet: BWX Technologies (BWXT)
With NASA racing to land a nuclear reactor on the moon, BWXT—already a contractor for space nuclear power systems—stands to gain from early contracts and long-term lunar energy dominance.

Bad Bet: Midwest Transmission Developers
With five states pushing FERC to strip MISO’s MVP designation, developers banking on region-wide cost-sharing face political risk. If FERC sides with challengers, some of the largest planned transmission lines may never break ground.

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